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How do you polish tracks from Korg Gadget?
To date, I have completed more tracks with Korg Gadget than anything else.* With increasing frequency, though, I want to use better effects -- especially better reverb. A couple times, I've exported projects and pasted them into Auria or Cubasis, but when I put everything together, adjust the levels again, and configure new effects, it wasn't an obvious improvement. As a result, I usually just export the complete mix from Gadget and run it through Igor Vasiliev's "Audio Mastering" app, which isn't for sale anymore. The presets have always sounded good to me.
What do you do?
(Why am I more productive with Korg Gadget? I think it's two things: it's loop-based, and it's a closed system (though there are still lots of sounds in it I haven't used). Maybe if I committed to Cubasis for a few weeks I'd feel the same level of comfort; heaven knows I have enough plug-in effects and instruments. Before Gadget, I started songs in Loopy HD and moved them to Auria or Cubasis for arrangement.)
Comments
What are you looking for exactly in regards to mixing?
If finishing the mix in Gadget and then Mastering using "Audio Mastering", which
I also use on occasion, is getting the sound you need then there's no need to change it.
Still, to get improvement or difference in the mix then I would say dive head first
into experimenting and then you will find the things you don't like
and on route you will inevitably remember the stuff you do.
Post up a track and I'll make some suggestions if that's okay with you.
Brasso
Great for heavy metal. New Creamy Formula
(What a great app name.)
I’m most productive in Gadget too.
As for reverb, I like my music quite dry. But I apply the IFX reverbs subtly (never use the master reverb).
It’s the highs in the reverb I don’t like, so I often use the build in Pre EQ to compensate.
I cut the highs -10dB like this:
Or depending on the source material (claps, etc) I boost the mids:
Same for the FB Reverb (with the ‘Tone’ knob).
Or if I want to go fx-crazy I use the “record output though mic” technique
Yes! Thank you for those suggestions.
I normally export Gadget projects as Ableton Live projects and take things to the next level there. You can save the audio as clips or export the midi but I just use the audio. Pretty much anything that exports Ableton projects on the IPad ends up in Ableton, Groove box is really good for its sounds and gets the creativity flowing, sometimes I’ll export the audio from Ableton and use ProTools or Logic.
Thanks for offering. Here's a couple with reverb problems.
In this track, I want the drums to sit back in the mix, but turning up the reverb makes them echoey:
Here's a track where the reverb is a little shrill or crunchy, especially around the sax parts:
I haven't tried @R_2's technique yet, but I will... I also need to "get"/evolve into a better drummer.
That's a wicked name.
Maybe layering some of these drums with Gladstone (if you have that gadget).
Gladstone has good (sampled) ambience with full control over dry/amb.
This is also a technique I once applied myself, playing gadget drums through a spring-reverb (AltiSpace, iVCS3, etc) and import 100% wet samples back into Bilbao to layer with the dry drums.
@R_2 's suggestion in regards to the reverb is what I would've suggested as well.
For a track like this I would bring everything down and gradually bring up levels.
As you want the drums to sit back in the mix, I would mute the drums entirely
and listen to the other synth sounds.
I would focus on the low end and mid then I would bring in the drums.
It needs something glue it together, I'm sure that's why
you like mastering your tracks in "Audio Mastering".
I would bring up the drums and bass on this one.
Adding some delays on the lead synth.
Sometimes delays can work much better than using reverb.
It does need to be subtle though.
That vocally sound midway I would bring that up and
delay to serve as an intro for the Arp'd synth.
Shorter reverb times would assist as well.
Rolling off the top end of the reverb makes the reverb warmer sounding.
It also a great product from metal products like pawn shop trumpets but it’s smell is deadly and probably toxic. I made a $10 cornet look really cool.
Another cool product: linseed oil for wood: like rifle stocks. Awesome glasses look and the linseed oil gets hot when you really apply elbow grease. Downside: the rags spontaneously combust with poor ventilation. We had to move a couple times after the fires.
Thank you, @R_2 and @Gravitas, for those detailed suggestions. I bought Gladstone, but haven’t used it as much as Madrid, which came out at the same time. I forget, too, that drums can be layered, not just synths.
I have a bottle in my tool box.
Agreed, it smells awful.
I wouldn't know in regards to rifle stocks.
The general population here do not carry guns.
What we know is from movies though that's changing.
Fires?
What happened?
Whether it's rifle stocks or furniture there shouldn't be any fires nearby.
That's asking for trouble.
No problem.
Exactly this.
This is exactly the endeavour I’m involved in since the onset of the plague. Originally to release them all as NFTs, but now I realise that’s all going to end in failure, I have nowhere to release (dumped my distrokid account, as it was too old-school and didn’t offer NFT things) (thank goodness).
Basically, I take the saved-out midi (per - track) files and load them all into Logic Pro X, only to find that they all line up at bar 0, whereas not all midi tracks in fact started there, so I have to go back to Gadget and figure out where each midi track should be positioned. I take that opportunity to chop the whole song up into sections – intro, verse, chorus, middle eight etc.
Then I use my hardware synths to aim for the kind of thing I was probably originally aiming for (ie not aiming for emulating the same sound, but rather, the intent it was supposed to do).
Then I do the mix-mastering – gain staging (in theory setting everything to -12dB, in practice, ignoring that and setting everything to a level that might aggregate well and not overload, in the end, often about -12dB but that’s only incidental, sometimes it isn’t that at all).
This involves being sensible about compressors.
Then I sing the vocals.
Then I de-muddy the bass (by not having my usual four or so competing bass lines all at once quite so much).
Then I duck a lot of the tracks using vocal sidechaining.
Then I call it finished and move onto the next song.
I move onto the next song quite quickly or I’ll start lamenting my lack of any affinity with drums.
What? You people are not armed? (Me neither. I’m not allowed the sharp scissors either.)
I was given a rifle as a kid and taught to shoot. I polished that rifle with linseed oil and didn’t handle the rag correctly. NO FIRE. I smelled the smoke and saved my family and house.
I didn’t tell anyone so I’m counting on your discretion. My dad did however die in a home fire. No mandated smoke detectors in AZ I suspect or my dad might have just let the batteries die and stop waking him up at night.
Oops. He had a good run but smoke inhalation and not finding an exit is no way to die, IMHO.
Words to live buy. The rifle can’t hurt you if it’s not loaded but the box of bullets can liven up a party in a fire.
Funny. That’s what my mom would accuse me of… if she only new. I’m sure she suspected. (I was an easy kid and didn’t get up to much except for that one time when I raced a school mate who had a hit car to a party. That could have been a life changing race. I let him win when the guys went in the car started screaming.)
Nah,...we leave that to the one's who actually know how to.
Most of us are very chilled for the most up until recently.
I'm sorry to hear this.
It must've been tough afterwards.
🙏🏾
My apologies @dokwok2 for the tangent.
Have you thought about using Taipei to send out
the midi parts and recording them into Logic X that way?
Though it's in real-time you know for certain where everything is going to be.
Though if you have a lot of parts this method can be tedious.
-12dB is to make sure you have plenty of headroom on the Master Bus before Mastering.
Rule of thumb is to make sure that none of the channels
are clipping unless that's the desired sound.
I'm the reverse I tend to push compression as much as possible.
Yeah, that's when you know you're almost there.
Have you thought of using phase when mixing that many bass lines?
Standard.
Isn't that a lovely feeling.
Going through collecting items that had value or personal meaning was the really hard part. His coin collection, some flutes, framed art and family photos, etc. Just going through the rubble would give you a severe headache from the fumes.
Thankfully my sister took on the challenge of having the lot cleared and up for sale. She was a credit card addict and was able to pay them down to zero. 18 months later she was max’ed again. Shopping and church were her 2 addictions after going to AA for 30 years. Once an addict… she passed 5 years ago and completed the set leaving just me. My mother’s passing while on a drive to Las Vegas for a Doctor’s appointment with my sister at the wheel was another unusual death. They were 1/2 way there on a 60 mile drive and my sister had to make a 911 call and wait. My poor sister was just not made for that level of trauma. It breaks my heart to imagine that scene.
I do the same with Bitwig as it can import Ableton als files. I bought the Gadget plugin suite for desktop and the tracks imported from Gadget on the iPad sound exactly the same as on the iPad. Then the journey continues.
https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metalowcy#/media/Plik:Metal's_not_dead.jpg
Polish metal
This is good to know as I don't use Ableton.
I couldn't imagine what this would be feel like
though I've had my own moments in life.
This is difficult stuff.
It's brave of you to speak so openly.
Grief is deeply personal.
Trauma is trauma.
On a level, I'm reading this and all I would like to say is that
if we were in the same vicinity I would say come out for a stroll.
Let's go for a walk and chat s!!t, let's hang out and make some music.
My heart to yours.
I'll share this with you because he is my son's godfather.
My first mature student came from the Middle East.
He's awesome, he's a multi-instrumentalist now.
That's another story, anyway...
He told me some things about growing up in the Middle East.
How his mother saved his life by telling him off and sending him
to his room and moments later a missile took out his balcony and living room.
Thankfully they survived.
He was a child.
He found solace in music, it was a joy to see him flourish
and he's still flourishing make no mistake.
@McD mate if you ever need someone to talk to, I'm a private message away.
@dokwok2 Whenever I use Gadget, I just usually mix my track levels into Gadget's default limiter and then turn the limiter off. Then I bounce out the final mix, pop that into Cubasis 3 (although soon that will be replaced by AUM once AUM has audio tracks added), adjust the track level until it hits about -12dB in the loudest spots (Peak meter, not RMS), and run it through MagicDeathEyeStereo, TB MBC, and TB Barricade.
In MDEStereo, I usually set the attack to "fast" and release to "5" since what I produce in Gadget is usually EDM. I also set the low cut to 20Hz as all of that inaudible low-end is useless.
I used to use BarkFilter's TripleBand preset instead of TB MBC, but it seems BarkFilter hasn't been updated in 5 years and could be removed from the appstore. So...I recreated the TripleBand preset in MBC, lol.
I used to use FabFilter's Pro-L2 as my limiter, but it sometimes sounds distorted. TB Barricade is also universal, whereas Pro-L2 is limited to the iPad only.
When I originally saved out the midi Taipei didn’t exist, plus I didn’t know I was going to put it into LPX, so I didn’t realise it started each midi track not at bar zero but at the place the first midi event occurred in each track.
Really like you say I should have come back to Gadget and used Taipei these days, using Gadget for macOS, which I have, but I only have the v1 of it (I refuse to buy the v2 upgrade because the v2 upgrade is never ever ever included in their frequent 50% off sales, so I feel no compulsion to buy it at that particular time), thus going back to Gadget on the iPad and re-saving the project as a v1 project for every song seemed a bit too much work. I should’ve done though.
I usually bounce the stems or midi and finish in cubasis cos I have my auv3 effects I like using. I really don’t get why they won’t at least allow gadget to use auv3 effects, it wouldn’t cut into their IAPs at all besides the deemax stuff and would make it very easy to finish tracks in
My thought:
Think in terms of a recording studio, where every stem should be approached as an instrument that has to be recorded as dry as it should be and at the right level (headroom).
Then add the compression, effects and levels in your DAW.
This way, you have the most freedom to work with your stems.
Also, make use of send channels to mix in the right amount of reverb or other effect for any channel for a coherent overall sound.
It’s tempting to apply effects right away for every instrument, but it get more difficult if you add more instruments to fit in the spectrum, fighting for each other.
Yeah, it's always when you're doing stuff that you quickly find the limitations.
Agreed, that sounds like a bit of a hassle.
The tip earlier on in regards to exporting out
the parts as an Ableton project file is a good one.